Lower your price please

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Rewire

Rewire

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Lake of the Ozarks
Gave a quote of $580.00 to install a 220 range circuit the customer called asking if I could lower the price I knew they were getting a second quote so I figured my price was beat for a fleeting second I had the urge to drop my price but I have been on this board long enough to hold my ground and this is what I told her." ma'am this is the price that I need to charge for my business I know this price may not be the lowest price but I am not in business to be the lowest priced electrician but to be the best electrician and my guys work very hard to maintain that goal I know if my price had been the lowest you would not hesitate to give us the job because of our excellent reputation I am sorry that I cannot beat the price of those who do not maintain the same high standards that we do thank you for the opppurtunity to bid your job." she then told me that she was going with the other guy,oh well .......NEXT!!!
 
Rewire said:
Gave a quote of $580.00 to install a 220 range circuit the customer called asking if I could lower the price I knew they were getting a second quote so I figured my price was beat for a fleeting second I had the urge to drop my price but I have been on this board long enough to hold my ground and this is what I told her." ma'am this is the price that I need to charge for my business I know this price may not be the lowest price but I am not in business to be the lowest priced electrician but to be the best electrician and my guys work very hard to maintain that goal I know if my price had been the lowest you would not hesitate to give us the job because of our excellent reputation I am sorry that I cannot beat the price of those who do not maintain the same high standards that we do thank you for the opppurtunity to bid your job." she then told me that she was going with the other guy,oh well .......NEXT!!!
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goodjob. i would NEVER lower my price just to get the job. we dont work for free
 
If you are about to go hungry, lower it a bit. They feel like they won, you get to eat. Otherwise it is what it is.

I hope you didn't pass out when you told her that...Long sentence! :grin:
 
My price is my price. I will ask what they believe the price should be and why. If the price is close to mine, I might consider lowering it (based on my workload and the job in question). I do not lower it just for the asking.

I think we all will have to deal with more of these type questions going forward for a while.
 
boils down to making a decision --do you believe your estimate knowing you will make a profit-----------or -------- the home owner's estimate and/or (possibly) someone else's who doesn't know what profit is? you will always be bidding against people who don't have insurance,permits,license fees,benefits,taxes,etc.

i always remember a very old (but rich) contractor once asked me "son, don't know how you electrical contractors stay sober today? when we bid a job, we always knew we were gonna make money, just didn't know how much!"

i never made excuses when a customer balked about the figure. just told them thats what it will cost. and it is sweet the few times they have to call you back because the lower bid guy messed up the job!!!
 
Keeping busy does not mean making money.

Anyone can lower their prices and get the job. I've known a lot of guys who 'went out on their own' thinking they have to be the lowest price guy to make money. They are either back working for an EC or have moved on to another trade.

Me? I have bills to pay and food to buy. My price is what it is.


I recently trimmed out two houses for a friend who tried his hand at being a self-employed electrician. The GC asked me if I would be interested in wiring his houses. I said "Sure! No problem!"

He asked me how much I would charge for the house I was finishing. I said "Somewhere between $7500 and 8000." He gasped, then asked me if I wanted to know how much my friend was charging him. I said "No, not really," since I already knew he was charging $4500.

Point is, my friend was busy.... busier than a pack of drunk dogs in a fire hydrant factory. But he wasn't making money, and had to ask me to wrap up some of his most unprofitable jobs.

I told the GC, "Well, I know for a fact two years ago you hired K**** to wire your houses. K**** is a darn good roper. Where is he today? Working for Jiffy Lube. Then you hired B*****. He's not a speed demon, but he does darn good work. He's now working at Sears. And now S****, he got a job doing apartment repairs. Why? You demanded such a low price they had to work out of an '84 Mazda pickup 12 hours a day and still couldn't make a profit. Now, you just drove up in a Corvette with 18 miles on the odometer, and ask me to, in effect, give you three grand...."
 
480sparky said:
Keeping busy does not mean making money.

Anyone can lower their prices and get the job. I've known a lot of guys who 'went out on their own' thinking they have to be the lowest price guy to make money. They are either back working for an EC or have moved on to another trade.

Me? I have bills to pay and food to buy. My price is what it is.


I recently trimmed out two houses for a friend who tried his hand at being a self-employed electrician. The GC asked me if I would be interested in wiring his houses. I said "Sure! No problem!"

He asked me how much I would charge for the house I was finishing. I said "Somewhere between $7500 and 8000." He gasped, then asked me if I wanted to know how much my friend was charging him. I said "No, not really," since I already knew he was charging $4500.

Point is, my friend was busy.... busier than a pack of drunk dogs in a fire hydrant factory. But he wasn't making money, and had to ask me to wrap up some of his most unprofitable jobs.

I told the GC, "Well, I know for a fact two years ago you hired K**** to wire your houses. K**** is a darn good roper. Where is he today? Working for Jiffy Lube. Then you hired B*****. He's not a speed demon, but he does darn good work. He's now working at Sears. And now S****, he got a job doing apartment repairs. Why? You demanded such a low price they had to work out of an '84 Mazda pickup 12 hours a day and still couldn't make a profit. Now, you just drove up in a Corvette with 18 miles on the odometer, and ask me to, in effect, give you three grand...."
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You sure have it down right.
 
Rewire,

I only won 8 of 100 bids at a time when the national average was 10 of 100.

8 of 10 bids, but you knew that . . .

Under the influence of the Daytona 500!
 
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I agree I hate going back on my price more than anything. I take a little time figuring my bid so if the customer doesnt think its right than to bad. Thats what i need to make for this much time. But theres always one that tries to lower you down some how. He'll offer all cash if i take off 500 i just laugh inside what does he think i am some dude selling carpets in Bombay, will my mortgae company take less if i offer all cash?
 
But sometimes throwing someone a bone leads into another money maker job like 12 cans in a 2nd floor clean attica acess job. so you give a little to get more sometimes.
 
tonyou812 said:
But sometimes throwing someone a bone leads into another money maker job like 12 cans in a 2nd floor clean attica acess job. so you give a little to get more sometimes.
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That's the theory that seldom ever works out. God's honest truth is that there's not much work in a person's house that's so appealing that it would cause me to lower my price on other work for them to get that more appealing job. That's akin to the old line from the GC's... "Give me a good price on this one, and I've got a few more for you at full price". Yeah, right. My goodwill begins and ends at maybe throwing a few gimmies into the scope that won't really cost me anything but have potential 'wow factor', but not the bottom line price.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about maintenance contracts that have a pre-agreed on rate schedule.
 
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I had quoted a service upgrade where my responsibility started with the meter and went downstream from there (the HO was going to install the underground pipe and utility was going to pull in their wires). My cost was in the $1200 range (which I already was not going to make a killing on). The HO called and asked if I would lower my price, so I told him I had to charge what I charge because I do this to make a living.

He called back a few days later to tell me the other Electrician bidding on the job would do it for half the price (same products being used, and same scope)! Obviously they went with him. The HO said the other guy could charge so little because he's been working so long that he's "well established".

This doesn't seem legit. What am I missing here?

I say let your price choose your customers.
 
Sharpie said:
He called back a few days later to tell me the other Electrician bidding on the job would do it for half the price (same products being used, and same scope)! Obviously they went with him. The HO said the other guy could charge so little because he's been working so long that he's "well established".

This doesn't seem legit. What am I missing here?

I say let your price choose your customers.
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the HO and the other EC are both idiots...you aren't missing anything...
 
tonyou812 said:
But sometimes throwing someone a bone leads into another money maker job like 12 cans in a 2nd floor clean attica acess job. so you give a little to get more sometimes.
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There's usually two schools of thought about customers asking for a lower price:

1. "Shouldn't you lower your price, you know, as an 'introductory offier' type of deal?"

2. "Shouldn't you lower your price now that I'm past your 'introductory offer', and it's now 'cheaper by the dozen'?"
 
Sharpie said:
He called back a few days later to tell me the other Electrician bidding on the job would do it for half the price (same products being used, and same scope)! Obviously they went with him. The HO said the other guy could charge so little because he's been working so long that he's "well established".

This doesn't seem legit. What am I missing here?
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Sometimes the other guy is just better at certain things, or maybe he has some kind of competitive advantage over you, is hungrier, or found a less expensive way to satisfy the customer's needs.

I found a guy that did my siding through my brother. His price was about 60% of what several other contractors wanted, and about 60% less than Sears. Same brand of siding. Did a real nice job.
 
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Sharpie said:
"My cost was in the $1200 range"
He called back a few days later to tell me the other Electrician bidding on the job would do it for half the price (same products being used, and same scope)! Obviously they went with him. The HO said the other guy could charge so little because he's been working so long that he's "well established".

This doesn't seem legit. What am I missing here?

I say let your price choose your customers.
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I see nothing wrong with the "range" you quoted. I don't know how he could do the job for half if "he's been working so long that he's well established".


Sounds fishy to me. Either he is a trunk slammer or he has something up his sleeve - like HO is doing more of the work, or, HO is providing material. Something is rotten in the cotton.
 
petersonra said:
Sometimes the other guy is just better at certain things, or maybe he has some kind of competitive advantage over you, is hungrier, or found a less expensive way to satisfy the customer's needs.

I found a guy that did my siding through my brother. His price was about 60% of what several other contractors wanted, and about 60% less than Sears. Same brand of siding. Did a real nice job.
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Or his wife might have a good job to support his hobby.

I have a friend that does siding. He told me he makes a whopping 25k a year. His wife has a great job with benefits so they do ok with her income.

If they had to rely on his income they would have been bankrupt long ago.
 
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